The widow of man who took his life following the death of their daughter is fighting a £94,000 demand from the taxman.
Angus McLaughlin was ordered to pay the money last year by HMRC but died before settling the bill.
Now, his grieving wife Katie claims she has been told to honour the debt.
She says Angus, 50, believed he was using a legal tax payment method while working as a freelance locum radiographer.
When Katie, also 50, told HMRC about his death, she was told to submit his most recent earnings so tax could be calculated.
She has been told the Government can make a claim against her husband’s estate, even though he died in March – 11 years after their daughter Muireann died in a tragic accident.
Katie, who is caring for the couple’s four other children at her home in Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, now fears being made bankrupt by HMRC over the debt.
She said: “Angus discovered that HMRC had retrospectively deemed the tax scheme he had been advised to use as illegal. This triggered his post-traumatic stress disorder and he sank deeper into depression.
“Angus wasn’t a tax dodger. He was just trying to do his best for his family. HMRC are still determined to get their pound of flesh from what little we have left.
“His accountant and my lawyer are now fighting to stop them claiming from my husband’s estate.”
HMRC said: “Our sympathies are with the family and friends of the individual.”
